Physicochemical Composition and Functional Properties of Jatropha Seed Oil and Jatropha Biodiesel: An Agro-Renewable Product

Abstract

The composition of jatropha oil and biodiesel has attracted extensive
research. However, fewer studies have been reported on the
functional properties of the oil and biodiesel. In this research, the
functional properties and physicochemical composition of jatropha
oil and biodiesel were investigated. The functional properties were
studied using spectroscopic method while the oil and biodiesel were
subjected to various physicochemical tests. The results obtained
revealed high levels of unsaturated fatty acid with linoleic and oleic
acids accounting for 75.92 %. The free fatty acid values (%) were
0.454 and 0.347 for the oil and biodiesel respectively. The
spectroscopic analysis showed that the dominant functional groups
were =C-H, C-O-C, RO-H, R-OH and C=O for the biodiesel and =CH, CH2, C=O and O-H groups for oil. The frequencies ranges were
from 1200 cm-1
to 3600 cm-1 and different vibrational types were
observed to cause the molecular infrared absorbance of both the oil
and the biodiesel. The spectroscopic analysis gave positive
identification of the oil and biodiesel. This provided another form of
qualitative analysis in terms of defining the character of the oil and
biodiesel